Today, it seems that we are always looking for quick, easy and efficient ways to get things done, and this is reflected in how we put our homes together - everything from the bedroom designs to the bathroom layout and the positioning of the laundry. Even door hardware today can make our lives less complicated.
Dave Angus from Hettich says that there is a strong trend towards door hardware that pulls out rather than the home owner having to go in.
“So instead of just having a shelf in a cupboard, the trend is to pull stuff out towards you rather than to dig around in the back for it, so we have these beautiful new drawers on soft close runners for pots and pans, even inside the drawers there are pot and pan organisers as well as crockery organisers,” he says.
“The pull out pantry is very popular from a storage point of view, so when you open the doors of the pantry everything comes out to you and it's easy to get your hands on those little sauce bottles and packets of soup, and then as you close it it all goes back into the cupboard.”
Angus says pull out hardware options are becoming more popular because they eliminate the problem of dead space in the back of cupboards or in corner units.
“We’ve got a few products where in a corner unit of a kitchen, as you open the door, a whole lot of shelving comes out towards you,” he explains. “I think a lot of goods end up in the back of those corner units and are never touched, whereas you’re probably in a position where you’ll keep it a lot tidier if you’re working with it all the time. Again it’s efficiency, it’s ergonomics. It’s ease of use.”
Another growing trend in door hardware is the push towards sliding doors rather than folding doors. While there is still a place for folding doors, like in small apartments or to partition off a home office, most people, according to Angus, prefer "a nice, flush, smooth closing sliding door.”
And with the sliding doors has come a surge in the popularity of soft close mechanisms. Angus says soft close options are the norm rather than the exception these days, and are used in many rooms throughout the house, not just in the kitchen.
“There's a mechanism that can be retrofitted onto the top of the door unit and as you open it, there's a mechanism that catches the door to soft open it and then you can just close it and walk away from it because there's another mechanism on the other side of the sliding door at the top that actually catches it and soft closes,” he explains.
“People want peace and quiet in their home. They want functionality, they want efficiency; they're prepared to pay for hardware products that are going to make their lives a bit easier.”
Rob Quinambao, national sales manager at Hafele, agrees that soft close mechanisms are a very popular door hardware option these days. He says that as the popularity of the product has increased, its price has decreased and this has only cemented its position as a "market leader", especially for people with children or young families, where door slamming is inevitable.
Quiambao, like Angus, has noticed that people are choosing pull out options rather than having to forage around inside a cupboard or pantry, and says that efficient storage options are a must-have, not just in the kitchen but in the bedrooms as well.
“Traditionally in wardrobe spaces you'd just have the hanging rail and that's it, but more and more these days cupboards and drawers, especially drawers, are getting built into the wardrobes of larger houses, but also in the smaller houses because of the limited space. They need to utilise the complete height of the wall,” Quiambao says.
When it comes to entry-way doors or external doors technology is the name of the game. More and more people are choosing electronic lock options rather than the traditional key lock, provided they have an override facility. People are even going as far as purchasing biometric systems, where access is granted from certain people's fingerprints. According to Quiambao, these technologies are most popular in large office fit-outs, student accommodation buildings and hotels.
In terms of the aesthetics of the door, less is more. People are preferring smooth, clean finishes on their doors, but that doesn't mean they aren't interested in design or what's in fashion. Even the look of the hinges is important, says Hettich's Dave Angus.
“In the old days a hinge was a hinge was a hinge, but now they're becoming designer. The good old daggy metal hinge has now even got a design element and Hettich has won some design awards in Europe on this, so even for the hidden away hardware, people are looking for something a little bit easier to look at.”
But at the end of the day, with people having less time at home and in many cases less space to live in, efficiency and ease of use rule. “People just want to be a bit more organised," says Angus. “I think the psychological impact of having a messy office or bedroom or kitchen has started to work on people because we've all got busy lives, so in terms of reducing that physical and psychological stress of storage, there's all sorts of ways that we can help in that regard.”
